Chapter 3- Winter's Comin'
outerbanks, 8pm
"Where'd All The time Go?" Plays lowly the entire chapter.
The sun had set, and John B and Cleo got to work on gutting and cooking the salmon they'd caught on their boat ride. As the sun was setting, and the air grew thinner and cold, JJ and Sarah sat side by side on the couch, a laptop on the coffee table showing the next flights out tomorrow morning, and warm up by the crackling of the fire to get JJ into the idea of romance, as she'd said. John B had laughed at her and told her that a little fire wasn't gonna shift JJ's stance.
"You know, if we had our own plane we'd be able to just leave." JJ tossed a hand out, as if he had the most stellar idea. "Too bad we have morals about the environment and shit."
"Who, exactly, would be flying this plane?" She teased her blonde counterpart.
JJ scoffed. "Trust me, Princess. I'm slow, but there ain't nothing, remember, nothing I can't figure out how to do."
"You need a license, JJ." John B told him, making an appearance in the doorway, drying his hands. "Cleo is making her secret recipe that I can't see."
"It's a secret, Funny Man! How is it gonna stay one if I let everyone peek into it?" Cleo yelled from her spot at the island, where she was prepping her seasonings.
"Touché." John B nodded.
"And, as for the pilot's license, we're rich and I can do whatever I please. I, however, wanna save the trees, the bees, and the seas. So, I pledge to not be that guy." JJ brushed off.
"Here's one for six-thirty tomorrow." Sarah pointed. "We'd be there by noon, give you some time to sleep at the hotel, get you some spiffy new threads and a beautiful bouquet!" She squealed, pointing at the flight. "First class, too. We can get silly with the champagne because we're twenty one now!"
"Yes we can." He grinned.
"Oh, God." John B groaned. "Don't show up at Kie's door drunk."
"Scout's honor, we won't." She swore.
"Sarah Cameron, you were never a girl scout." He laughed at his girlfriend, who shrugged.
"Needed some sort of salute." She defended herself, still smiling.
"Woo! I've never flown first class, considering we were broke until a few months ago." He grinned. "I learned my lesson with draining our pockets."
John B smiled lightly to himself at his friend. He'd been noticing small changes that the blonde menace had been making in his daily life. No weed until five o'clock. No impulsive decisions, his room was littered with pro's and con's lists.
Doing his laundry on time.
Paying his bills on time.
Taking pride in his belongings and his space. Keeping things relatively tidy, and not living in filth.
Not disappearing when shit gets hard and feeling his emotions.
He'd made some huge progress since the day he put their property tax-funding, last little nugget of gold on a race and lost. They scrambled, until the government got involved in excavating their cave, and compensated them extensively. Then they hadn't needed to worry.
However, his friends gently came together to explain their concern for his behavior. And he'd taken it surprisingly well, in fact, he'd made change pretty immediately. Starting with the way he'd been treating his girlfriend too.
Regular dates and gifts. Regular displays of affection. Even actually saying he loves her.
John B winced. Even through all of this change, his friend was still getting the shit end of the stick. It made him feel terrible.
"Listen, J... I just don't want you going to LA with the thought that everything is gonna go your way..."
"Bree, relax." JJ's expression turned stoic. "I know."
"You do?"
"Yeah. It's pretty obvious considering she isn't here right now." JJ grumbled.
"Okay." The blonde's best friend spoke, scanning his features carefully. Something about JJ lately hadn't quite been sitting right in his chest. But, in lieu of knowing that JJ had to go on this trip, and knowing Sarah would never let anything happen to JJ, he backed off. He could figure it out when his two most important people got home.
"Bree, you don't got to worry." JJ assured his friend.
"We're always gonna worry about you, Jayj, it's our job." Sarah told him, pointedly. "Changed man or not, you're my brother now through marriage." She nodded.
"Through what marriage?"
"Our marriage."
"Oh, the illegitimate one?" JJ teased, and was met with a pillow to the face.
"Like it or not, Jayj, we're family, and you're my illegitimate brother, basically." She told him.
"Funny Man, get ya ass in this kitchen, boy, I'm finished." Cleo called to him, making him laugh.
"Guess she's done with the secret seasonings." He scoffed. "I'm only good for my labor."
"Don't make me cut you!" She warned him, appearing in the doorway with a playful smile on her face, but still holding a knife.
"JJ, if I don't make it back, tell Sarah I love her." He cried as the Bahamian girl dragged him back to his job.
3am-
JJ had set his alarm for five am, but now that he was actually in the thick of it, he knew he wasn't going to sleep.
He did his best, truly, but sometimes your body simply doesn't want to rest.
He jumped, upon meeting Sarah in the kitchen.
"Jesus, Princess, are you waiting on me to give me a heart attack?" He asked, hand over his chest, but fighting the tired grin.
"Why are you even awake?" She asked him.
"Tired, can't sleep. I'm lonely. Gonna go smoke about it." He nodded in affirmation. "What about you?"
"John B was snoring and I figured I could get a jump on packing the carry-ons. You just need to grab some clothes." She told him. "Mind if I partake?"
He narrowed his eyes, a gesture that she returned, but soon enough they were giggling out on the front porch, each with a fuzzy blanket wrapped around their shoulders, passing a blunt back and forth.
"Y'know, I appreciate you for coming with me, Sar." He eventually told her, the mood growing solemn. "I love JB but this isn't quite his department."
She smiled, but stayed silent for a minute. JJ never attempted to fill that silence either, which was always nice. Nothing with this man had ever seemed forced to her, in fact, JJ had been the easiest to get along with from the jump, even when Kiara had told all of them to pound sand, even when he left them stranded on a boat together by John B's request, JJ had always been kind to her no matter the circumstances, even before they'd been friends.
And then when her father died...
She took a deep breath, and put her hand on his knee. It was affectionate, and he never made it weird because he never had to. He looked her in the eye while she talked rather than letting them scan her and try to mack on her.
"After my father died... The first time..." She started, elaborating back on that dark period after Ward blew up the boat and faked his death. "You were the only one of the Pogues who made me feel like it mattered." She told him.
He curled a brow, frowning. "What does that mean?"
"You understood. You told me you were there to talk." She shrugged. "You understood that no matter what he did, he was still my dad."
He nodded. "I do understand still, now that he died twice." The humor bubbled over his confession, making him sigh. "You and me, Princess, are more alike than anyone besides us would ever care to admit. We're fucked up. And there's understanding when it comes to trauma."
"Such an intelligent statement." She teased.
"There it is, the JJ that lies deep within you." He grimaced. "Sorry."
She laughed, watching as the sun came up and they talked about mundane shit, until the alarm on his phone went off. He gave her a sleepy smile, making her purse her lips. She was aware he hadn't slept in days, not since Kiara had left, and these middle of the night moments for him were already frequent due to the arguing.
She was going to support her friend, yeah. But she had a few choice words for Kiara, because nobody else was ever going to tell her otherwise. Or at least, Cleo and Pope might not.
John B would have some choice words for her as well. Although, he had to stay back at the house with Cleo in case immigration came by surprise.
"There you are." John B spoke, yawning, and dropping to give Sarah a kiss.
"What about me?" JJ guffawed, to which John B leaned over with his lips scrunched for a kiss. "Nevermind! I don't want a three way spit- mhmhmhm." Sarah put a hand over his mouth.
"Don't talk about spit." She told them sternly, fighting the gag.
"I love you, J, please both of you be safe." John B told them, as they approached the airport. He kissed his wife goodbye. "I love you Sarah Routledge."
Gag.
"I love you John B Routledge."
Double Gag. Apparently that one was out loud, bc the giggles and glares were prominent. He hugged his best friend.
They'd said their goodbyes, and as soon as JJ entered the airport, he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Holy shit." He laughed.
He'd never actually been in an airport before, considering most of his travels had kind of been illegal. He never had a passport and had now been smuggled in and out of this and other countries on multiple occasions.
"Holy shit, what?" She asked him, rolling her carry-on bag beside her. She'd opted to take one with wheels, a decision he'd foregone in favor of a backpack.
"I've never been in one of these before." He told her, smiling. "I was poor, remember?" He scanned the area. "It's like a city in here."
"Well, good sir, I think you will fare quite well, considering you have the rich gal expert by your side for our travel extravaganza." She told him, putting on god-awful attempt at a British accent.
"Oh, darling, I do say. I'm quite glad my bastard sister came to accompany me on this trip across these states." He told her, in his better accent. "She has a terrible accent though. Much too much definition on the aaaah."
She laughed at him, before looking around. "We can go get checked in and grab some breakfast?" She asked him.
"Checked in?"
After standing in line for an hour, and JJ managing to mess up walking through the metal detector, they finally made it through TSA. Now, they were munching on their respective breakfasts. JJ sipped from his orange juice glass with a pinky out as Sarah joked lovingly on facetime with John B and Cleo, who had just arrived back at home. She pointed the phone at him.
"Guys, JJ is like a trained dog, look at him sipping like the queen is coming!" She teased, making him give her the finger with his other hand.
"When in doubt, pinky out." He shrugged, burping loudly, drawing stares from the others.
"Hey, lady, can you tell your boyfriend to get some better table manners?" An older lady asked Sarah, who scoffed. She was a blonde, middle aged woman with a bob-style haircut, ridiculous pink fingernails, and a fur hat. Her dog sat in it's carrier with his head poking out, snarling at everyone that walked past.
"Excuse you?" She asked. "This man is my brother, and this is an airport Deli-style diner. Get a grip, and focus on your eggs benedict." She made eye contact with the dog. "And tell your demented dog to stop growling at everyone."
JJ stayed silent, watching amusedly, and kind of grateful, as the woman seemed to back off, if only a little. She made a few noises of indignation, before demanding to be moved to another table.
"Aw, look at you defending our little J." John B's voice came in through the speaker of the phone.
A second box popped up on the screen, making Sarah stiffen, before she relaxed when she realized it was only Pope.
"Hey, guys, guess who just passed his first semester with flying colors?"
Cleo grinned. "That's my lova. Move, Funny Man, lemme see him."
The group laughed, noticing the stark difference without Kie. Sarah looked on as JJ laughed with the group, but his smile wasn't quite at his eyes. She was worried about him, and she knew that John B and Cleo and even Pope were worried too.
She checked the clock.
"Guys, Jayj and I got to go or we will miss our flight." She told them. "Get a load of this asshole before his first ever flight."
"It's not my first flight." He scoffed. "It's just my first legal one." The woman who had told him to learn some manners, and hadn't been granted the request to move, made a noise of indignation at the comment. He looked over at her. "Listen, Miss Lady, I understand that you have nothing better to do than be rude to teenagers at seven in the morning. We grew up in poverty, and now we're rich. Get over yourself." He told her, sweetly.
He threw down some money on the table, and stood, turning dramatically, smiling to himself. That outburst had been healthy. That episode had been valid. He'd been nice, though condescending.
Sarah was stunned for a moment, but didn't comment on it.
She knew how he operated, simply from observance of his character and how he would react in terms of what people did. Teasing him about it brought out the menace in him. Pointing it out immediately made him uncomfortable.
She respected his unspoken boundaries without judgement, and was the only one of the Pogues, with the exception of John B that let him work through it alone, without corralling or judging.
"Do you really wanna drink?" He asked her.
She curled a brow. "What do you mean?"
He pursed his lips, making her cringe inwardly. He was so hard to gauge sometimes. "Nevermind." He sped up.
"Jesse James." She told him, jogging lightly to keep up. Damn did he walk fast. "Don't do that. You've been doing so good all morning. It's me." She pointed her thumb back at herself. "I understood you and John B were a package deal, but I am one of your best friends. Don't act like I don't know you, because I can see you." Her response had been clear enough to him, and spoken without an attempt at consoling or judging him. She spoke as if she were speaking to an equal.
They got to the line to board.
He raised an eyebrow, but nodded, appreciating her mannerisms with him. She wasn't wrong. "Fair enough. My bad." He told her.
She raised an eyebrow. "Why did you ask me that question?"
The line moved forward.
"You said it." He told her. "Last night, shopping for plane tickets."
"I did." She acknowledged. "Why did you ask, though, are you not down?"
He glanced around, looking at others. She did the same. "We can talk about it later, and I won't." She grinned. "We can watch a movie."
He smiled lightly. "Thanks for always being so cool. You're the only one besides JB who doesn't... like..."
"I know, J."
And they boarded the plane.